Michiru of Montremarte
by Haruka Piro Tenou
Summary: Second chapter up. Story actually starts here.
1. La Valse D'Michiru

July the eleventh, 1980. 

A _Drosophila Siphonaptera_ flies its way towards the main course that a fat lady eats on the outside of a cheap restaurant, in the lower burroughs of Les Abrets, France.

It is immediately squashed by the garçon, causing the disgust of his client and her consequent leaving without a tip or paying.

Five minutes later, twenty three meters from there. Jean Loiret, a youth that is barely three days from turning 11, falls from the stair from which he had been voyeuring at Mrs. and Mr. Renardet, causing him, at the moment of impact against the floor, to slip from all consciousness from this day on till the day he finally turns 13.

Eighteen minutes later, three blocks and a half from there. In the middle of the act of lovemaking, and without their further notice and awareness, André and Michelle duLeille have conceived a child.

Nine months later, March 6th, a baby girl has been born. Michelle and André decide to give her a foreign name, cause of mockery between the street kids for the consequent fifteen years to come. This name is so special no one in France is capable of saying it, since it's not french. 

They drop it and name her Michiru.

Michiru doesn't grow much; according to her father who had been a doctor in the Military many years ago, she suffers from the heart. 

What Michiru suffers is her vegetables. Incapable of eating just one carrot, she never grew too much.

Michiru never goes to school because her father fears she will not endure the emotion; her mother teaches her everything she will ever have to know. The violin Michiru receives when she turns seven was never played until she turns nine; the paints her father buys her constantly dry up before she decides to use them. The books her mother shows her are quickly read and discarded.

Mother DuLeille dies in awkward situation when Michiru is 10. André never quite gets the grip of this and Michiru's education remains unfinished. The contact she has with her father crumbles and Michiru starts counting the days till she is old enough to leave home.

Michiru turns seventeen and leaves home. Her father barely notices since he's been trying to cope with himself for the last seven years by arranging his wife's garden. Michiru thinks it is his way to care for what Michelle left behind. 

Michiru finds work and a place to live near the center of Les Abrets, in a decent café. She offers to play the violin for the clients, but Madame Lizette tells her it'll be better if she just serves the coffee. Michiru is not naive, as she may seem, and accepts the job.

That is Madame Lizette, the owner of the café. Nobody knows how really old she is. She smokes a lot, wears one curious bandana on the head that everybody thinks comes from Spain when it really comes from Portugal and never opens the café on time. She always reads the paper when she's not needed or nobody wants to gossip and will never boss Michiru since she likes very much the girl.

The blonde woman in the cigarette booth is Maddie. She is now installing an electrical fan to shoo away all the smoke from Madame Lizette's cigars. She is a hypocondriac; if she's not sick in the stomach, then she's got a migraine. She's nice to many people, but only when she's not sick, and it's been a while since she's healthy again. Maddie is famous for getting into almighty arguments with Madame Lizette about whether smoking is good or bad. 

The brunnete serving the coffee is Ariel. She's younger than Michiru, but they're good friends. Ariel never gets into Madame Lizette's and Maddie's arguments, but if someone pushes her buttons they'll regret the day they first met her. Ariel's exboyfriend and actual stalker, Jean Johann, comes everyday to stalk her.

No, not that guy. The blonde guy is Milo, the writer. I meant the OTHER guy.

Yes, that one. Jean Johann broke up with Ariel, then realized he had made a mistake and Ariel never took him back, so he stalks Ariel. Michiru will drop his coffee into his lap every time he makes a stupid remark about women.

"Ow! Michiru, c'est la quinte fois!"*

Like now.

Michiru likes to do things in her free time. Many times they're just useless. Many times she never knows what drives her to do them. For example, she'll just sit in the roof of her building and count how many couples are having an orgasm right now in Les Abrets.

"Quinze."* 

And just plainly having sex?

"Treinte et... deux."*

Michiru doesn't know she will have a life changing experience tomorrow at noon. She will notice she can do something to change everybody's miserable life just by doing things. 

But she will only notice tomorrow.

------------------

You know? My french can be quite bad.

Like I said in the summary, it's seeing a Michiru/Haruka romance in an Amelie (the movie) point of view. If you've seen the movie then you'll know what am I talking about. If not, then you will just plainly read it.

If you liked the first chapter, then I'm doing the other ones. But I wanted to know if you liked it; please review if you do! 

*C'est la quinte fois!: It's the fifth time!

*Quinze: Fifteen.

*Treinte et deux: Thirty-two.


	2. L'Autre Valse: D'Haruka

The bed rocked; this was not quite what she imagined...

Another man in her bed. It was that same empty feeling she felt everytime a man occupied her sleeping space. She smiled, inwardly thinking that if she giggled the guy would be no more affected than if she threw a chair at him, so deep he was into his pouncing.

Then again, she never had a love to share with someone. 

******

"Michiru, dear, please, ma café au lait!" Milo said, his eyebrow inadvertedly twitching. Michiru already had another three coffees, a latte and a crossaint in her tray, and balanced a package of cigarettes and a check in the other hand but nodded. This was one of those unique days in which the Café had so many people even the stomach-aching Maddie had to help. 

Madame Lizette, of course, smoked calmly in her chair. She WOULD NOT help. 

"I own this place and pay your checks, my children."

Jean sniggered at the commentary. Suddenly his nose made contact with a cup full of boiling hot java coffee. 

"Nice shot, Ariel." Michiru commented. "Your aim is getting better."

Ariel smiled and winked at a customer, thus encouraging Jean's jealousy.

"Women." He fumed. "Nothing but whor--..." Ariel shot him a death glare. "... er?"

"Wow, Jean, you're really getting better at it."

"Ah, shut up, Michiwu."

"It's Michiru." 

"Michiwu Michiwu!"

Michiru faked slipping and threw 4 hot coffees aimed at his lap. 

"OW! Michiru!"

"So now you get it right, Jean?" Ariel commented. 

By now half the coffee costumers were laughing at Jean, who left fuming. Michiru noticed he had left his tape recorder and took it; by first intentions she was going to return it but Jean was going meaner by the day: he had to learn some lessons.

******

There was something in the crowds that occupied the Metro that appealed to Michiru. She was able to see everyone's face and judge what had happened to them during the day.

For example, that small boy had been teased at school. Tear trails dried his dirt stained face, and he was clutching his mother's leg dearly.

And that man, well, he had been fired. That was obvious. His portfolio was fuller than the other days in which Michiru had seen him. His face was almost oblivious to what happened around him, his sack hung from his arm, and his glasses were almost falling from the bridge of his nose. 

This was one of those days...

******

'Great shag.'

Of course, the idiot had to be british.

'I'd pledge undying love to you forever but I already did to my fiancée. I'm sorry, this shouldn't have happened.

'If you're pregnant, that's your problem.'

"Gee, great. While he was having the time of his life pouncing against me, he even forgot to use a condom. Dad's going to love this." Michiru rolled her eyes. Abstinence, that was the answer. However, she was sure she wasn't pregnant.

Or was she? 

Really, one of those days...

She took a quick shower and put her favorite gown over. While taking her makeup off, she slipped with a small puddle of water she had left, making an rather ungraceful swish over the floor and ending sprawled against the wall.

"Ow."

She fell on her butt. Trying to regain her focus, she tried to help herself to stand, tenting the wall. She found a brick. Her hand grasped it.

The brick slipped and fell. Michiru fell back.

"Ow!" She kicked the brick. "Is destiny against me today?"

She noticed that the brick had left a hole in the wall. There was something inside the hole, and thought curiosity killed the cat, Michiru couldn't but think she wasn't a cat.

Inside the cigarette box that was inside the hole, were all the marvelous things that a boy could have owned. They were those precious things that you wanted to keep but didn't want to have your mother's hands all over it. 

A toy car. A rabbit paw. A photo from a Grand Prix, one of those races that were celebrated with ancient cars, and another shot of a man who was holding a prize. A plastic snake (surely it was a boy.)

Michiru smiled. This was the first good thing that had happened this day. She knew this had an owner. And she knew, she was going to give it to him.

******

The Metro was quieter than other mornings. Michiru only noticed a guy kneeled in front of a photo booth, trying to take something out from below of it with a ruler. He seemed amused with his work. 

Michiru decided to help.

"What are you looking for, monsieur?"

The guy in question jumped like someone had scared him with a bloody knife. 

Meet Haruka Lieux.

Haruka hasn't got a beautiful life, but she likes it. She wears masculine clothes, has wore them all of her life. Often taken by a man, she smiles and nods.

To pay her fees Haruka works half time in a sex shop and half time in a tematic park.

Back to our time, Haruka jumped a couple of feet away from the booth, causing both her and Michiru's starting. Michiru's heart beats faster for the couple of moments Haruka takes in taking her things and leaving. 

Haruka hasn't noticed, but her heart is also beating faster.

And none of those hearts is beating faster because of the fright.

Michiru noticed the poor man... or was it a woman?... had left a book in the floor. Michiru took it and gave it a brief look. It was more like a photo album. She decided to find the guy in another time and give it to him. It seemed she was destined to give many things back to their owners.

******

"Madame Lizette, can I put some music?" Michiru asked, nervously eyeing the tape she held in her hand.

"Why oui, my dearest!" She looked at the tape in Michiru's hand. "And you simply *must* put *that* tape." She flashed a wink at Michiru. "It'll help us to get rid of one particular unpleaseant costumer."

Michiru, thought pleaseantly surprised, smiled too. Madame must have seen her taking off with Jean's tape. Michiru put the tape on the recorder. Instead of music, most costumers started hearing slow, heavy breathing.

The ones that didn't were probably deaf.

'J.J. Limonde's Records. Day 29. 

Ariel has been talking to Michiru all day. No more than lazy cows, women. 

11:39.

Ariel has taken off to the grocery store. Michiru has dropped her first coffee in my lap. I need some relief, seems MichiWu's stupid and I can't stand wet pants."

Michiru grinned maliciously when she noticed Jean had recognized his own voice and started looking for his tape and recorder. She cocked one eyebrow and put her hand in her hip, showing him his recorder in the other hand.

He looked like he would puke, slap her, and cry, all at the same time.

******

Michiru threw herself on her bed, sighing.

Not much work today at the café, but boy, what an exercise to run all the way to her department, scampering away from one particularly murderous Jean.

******

In the other end of Les Abrets, Haruka's head fell down in shame when she noticed she had lost her album. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Oi, I noticed I had not much feedback when I put the first chapter up. Please, I'm doing an effort, you do one and take some time to write a review.

Milo, the failure writer, says 'my coffee with milk', for those who were wondering what was he saying in french.

I know you know we all know where is this leading to. It's too easy, too many hints. But as a little coworking with my readers, what do you think, should Michiru be pregnant? 

As always, Ari, this is for you.

Haruka Piro Tenou


End file.
